More than 2,300 Syrian refugees poured into Turkey during a 24-hour
period, a Turkish official told AFP on Thursday.

The numbers brings to 22,000 the total number of Syrians seeking
haven in Turkey, the official said.

Turkey is home to a growing number of refugees fleeing the unrest in
Syria, where more than 9,000 people have been killed since March of
last year, according to UN figures.

The official told AFP that 2,350 refugees crossed the border in one
single day.

According to AFP, Turkish officials have contingency plans in the
event of a larger-scale incursion as Syrian regime forces storm
opposition towns near the Turkish border.

Currently, according to the report, the government has set up nine
locations including eight tented camps and a “container city” in
Kilis, some 95 miles east of the Hatay camps, to deal with the influx.

Turkey has broken a former alliance with the Damascus regime and has
urged President Bashar Assad to quit.

The country hosts a large Syrian opposition community, including
rebels defecting from the army, and earlier this week hosted
the “Friends of Syria” summit.

Meanwhile on Thursday, an advanced peacekeeping team arrived in
Damascus to negotiate the deployment of an unarmed UN observer force
in Syria.

A spokesman for UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan said the UN is
already asking member states to dedicate 200-250 soldiers to the
observer force, which will be tasked with monitoring a UN-backed
ceasefire agreement.